French expertise in spectroscopic surveys…the path to MSE!

A workshop was held at the SF2A in Nice, France (http://sf2a.eu/semaine-sf2a/2019/index.php?lang=fr) to discuss the role of French scientists in multiple past, present, and future spectroscopic surveys (e.g. SDSS, WEAVE, DESI, MOONS, MSE). The workshop was organized by MSE Project Office System and Operations Scientist Nicolas Flagey and MSE Science Team members Vanessa Hill (Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur), Christophe Yeche (Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique), and Jean-Charles Cuillandre (Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique). The workshop was a great opportunity to gather researchers from France involved in multi-object spectroscopic facilities with scientific interests that range from stars in our Galaxy and its immediate neighborhood, to formation and evolution of galaxies at large redshift, and to large structures on cosmological scales. It was also a chance for people to exchange ideas and discuss the future of spectroscopic survey facilities in the context of the French Prospective, with MSE as the ultimate goal.

The workshop started with general presentations on three scientific topics to highlight the complementarity and the progression between each wide field spectroscopic survey facility. These presentations were given by Nicolas Martin (Observatoire de Strasbourg) on Galactic archaeology, Laurence Tresse (Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon) on formation and evolution of galaxies, and Christophe Yeche on cosmology. A status update of MSE was then given by Nicolas Flagey to end the first half of the workshop.

The second part of the workshop was dedicated to more targeted topics including surveys of the intergalactic medium, unveiling the Galactic stellar halo, SED fitting, and the link between spectroscopic and photometric data.

The workshop concluded with a discussion about the importance of maintaining French expertise in the domain of spectroscopic surveys and how interested researchers can contribute to the ongoing Prospective.